U.K. FIELD DEVELOPMENTS MARK PROGRESS

U.K. operators have announced plans for developing two offshore fields, while first gas has been produced from another.

Conoco (U.K.) Ltd. will develop Block 15/24b MacCulloch field using a leased production and storage ship.

Amoco (U.K.) Exploration Co. plans to develop Beaufort field on Blocks 49/23 and 49/28 as a single well tieback to Bessemer platform.

Meanwhile, Phillips Petroleum Co. U.K. Ltd. began production from Dawn gas field Nov. 16 through a single subsea well tied back to its Hewett platform on Block 48/29c.

MACCULLOCH

Conoco said development of MacCulloch, which has estimated reserves of 58 million bbl of oil and 15 bcf of gas, would not be economic using a conventional platform.

The development will take place under a production service contract, let for an undisclosed sum to North Sea Production Co. Ltd., Woking, U.K., a 50-50 venture of Tenenge/SLP Group and Maersk Co. Ltd.

Conoco will drill three extended reach development wells beginning in April 1996, with a view to starting production in December that year. It is expected that one further producer and three to five water injection wells will be drilled once the field is producing.

Conoco said the wells would cost about 7 million ($11 million) and output would be paid for under a tariff based contract tied to production levels.

The subsea completed wells will be individually tied back to Dagmar Maersk, a tanker that will be converted to produce as much as 60,000 b/d of oil and 24 MMcfd of gas and store as much as 550,000 bbl of oil.

Processed oil will be exported to Flotta terminal in the Orkney Islands via a pipeline to Piper B platform operated by Elf Enterprise Caledonia Ltd.

Associated gas will be transported to Piper B for transmission via the Frigg network to St. Fergus, north of Aberdeen.

Elf will lay and operate the two 30 km export pipelines. The oil line will be 250 cm in diameter and the gas line 150 cm.

BEAUFORT

Cecil Provine jack up rig will be used to drill the Beaufort production well beginning this month. First gas from Beaufort is slated for February 1996. Production is expected to reach a maximum of 30 MMcfd and last 4 years.

Beaufort gas will be sent from Bessemer, which started production in October, by pipeline to Amoco's Indefatigable 49/23c platform and from there to Amoco's gas terminal at Bacton, Norfolk.

Kent Davis, Amoco's southern North Sea asset manager, said, "Beaufort is an excellent example of maximizing the use of existing North Sea infrastructure and advanced technology to develop small but important fields."

DAWN

Phillips said Dawn field is capable of producing more than 50 MMcfd of gas. An 8 in. gas pipeline and control umbilical links Dawn to the host platform. From Hewett, Dawn's gas is exported to Bacton.

Dawn Project Manager Brian King said a third production well was drilled in Deborah subsea field while Dawn development was under way. "This enabled us to integrate use of resources," said King, "such as vessels in the field, to maximize benefit to both projects. It has demonstrated that the way forward for such smaller satellite fields is, wherever possible, to plan ahead and develop two or three together, enabling considerable cost and time savings."